Tag Archives: anti-racism

Cavazos, Harris and other officials have acknowledged that there is a “perception” that police, particularly in south Phoenix, treat Blacks and Hispanics differently from Whites.

“This is a minority issue,” said Cavazos, Phoenix’s first Hispanic chief executive, “and we have to include all the different groups that feel they have suffered from discrimination.”

Not all are embracing the idea of another task force.

Community activist Carolyn Lowery said there has been little change since a citizens panel was created in the wake of the 1994 death of 25-year-old Edward Mallet, a Black double-amputee who died after Phoenix police put him in a neck hold.

“We’ve done these task forces over and over again,” said Lowery, who has spent the past 25 years speaking out against police brutality. “I don’t think it’s the way to deal with police brutality. It goes on about six months and you never hear anything else.”

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A research team led by psychologist Jenessa Shapiro of the University of California, Los Angeles conducted a preliminary study and three experiments to determine whether whites are more likely to perceive facial expressions as threatening if the face in question belongs to an African-American male. Their disturbing results are detailed in their paper “Following in the Wake of Anger,” which was published online Tuesday in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.

I met with my new minister earlier this week to talk about some observations and interactions I’ve had in the six weeks or so that I’ve been attending services, which are very much related to why I stopped attending services in the first place. I talked, and talked, and talked… for about two hours.

“But it is still the case that the most frequently asked question I receive as I travel the country is how we can become more racially and culturally diverse. My response, always, is that the objective of finding a few more dark faces to make our white members feel better about themselves is not spiritually grounded. Nor will it be successful. Racial and cultural diversity will, I pray, come to Unitarian Universalism. But it will come as we become known as a faith community that strives to live our open hearted theology, and a faith community that is willing to be an ally in the struggle for justice.”
—William G. Sinkford, President, Unitarian Universalist Association, General Assembly Fort Worth, TX (June 2005)

By the time I realized why I was fed up and didn’t feel connected and why Sunday services had started to drain me, I’d had it up to HERE with feeling like the kids and I were a poster family… a nod to the congregation’s diversity.

The UUA already has anti-racism resources, but it’s a long and at times challenging process. Uber-liberal white people, especially those that come from a long and proud tradition of social action in civil rights movements, can be dismissive of the need to participate in programs like The Journey Toward Wholeness Path to Anti-Racism. The UUA is also developing resources for multicultural youth and young adults through The Mosaic Project,

I’m going try to help facilitate an identity group for multicultural families to provide support and resources. And one defunct interfaith playgroup aside, I really have no experience with covenant groups/small group ministry… so if you do, I’d love any suggestions, advice or resources you have. If you don’t have any experience but would like to participate in something like that if you could, I’d love any feedback you have about what you’d like to get from such a group.